Jeff Donnell

Jeff Donnell, born Jean Marie Donnell in 1921 at a boys’ reformatory in South Windham, Maine, was the younger of two daughters of schoolteacher Mildred and penologist Howard Donnell. She took piano and dance lessons while growing up in Maryland and adopted the nickname “Jeff” from the “Mutt and Jeff” comic strip. After studying at the Yale School of Drama and a brief stint in summer stock, she married her first husband, Bill Anderson—a drama teacher from Boston’s Leland Powers Drama School—at age 19; together they founded the Farragut Playhouse in Rye, New Hampshire. A Columbia Studios talent scout saw her there and signed her, after which she moved to Los Angeles and debuted in the wartime film *My Sister Eileen* (1942), where Anderson worked as a dialogue director. Known for a perky, unpretentious, tomboyish presence rather than classic glamour, Donnell appeared mainly in B‑movies as breezy girlfriends or spirited bobby‑soxers, with titles including *Doughboys in Ireland* (1943), *What’s Buzzin’, Cousin?* (1943), *Nine Girls* (1944), *A Thousand and One Nights* (1945), *Carolina Blues* (1944) and *Eadie Was a Lady* (1945), as well as musical westerns starring Ken Curtis. She occasionally entered A‑pictures, most notably the Bogart film noir *In a Lonely Place* (1950), though she usually played supportive friends of leading ladies; a later move to RKO Studios in 1949 did not alter her B‑movie standing. In the early 1950s she transitioned successfully to television, appearing in various comedy and drama roles. After a long separation, Donnell divorced Anderson in 1953; they had one son, Michael, and an adopted daughter, Sarah Jane. She married actor Aldo Ray in 1954, but the marriage ended within two years amid drinking problems and a miscarriage, and she later married and divorced twice more. On television she portrayed Alice Gobel, the frequently mentioned wife of comedian George Gobel, on *The George Gobel Show* (1954) for four seasons, and played Gidget’s mother in *Gidget Goes Hawaiian* (1961) and *Gidget Goes to Rome* (1963). From 1979 until her death she was a regular on the daytime soap *General Hospital*, playing Stella Fields, the Quartermaine housekeeper. Suffering from Addison’s disease and other health issues, Donnell died peacefully of a heart attack in her sleep at age 66 in 1988.